Character ranks (tiers)

I've come up with this concept a while ago.

Tier 1: Main characters. These have major roles in most episodes, and they're widely regarded the show's main cast.
The Mane Six, Spike, Celestia.

Tier 2a: Relatively frequently recurring secondary characters. They don't count as main characters, but they've got canonical names, and they appear with dialogues in a number of episodes. When they appear, they've got comparatively big roles, so they're not mere background ponies (anymore, in Cheerilee's case).
Examples: The Cutie Mark Crusaders, Granny Smith, Big Macintosh, the Mayor, Cheerilee.

Tier 2b: One- or two-shot secondary characters. They're limited to very few episodes (one or two), they're not too likely to return, at least not more than once, but otherwise, the same applies to them as to tier 2a characters.
Examples: Sapphire Shores, Hoity Toity, Photo Finish, The Great and Powerful Trixie, Steven Magnet, Discord.

Tier 3: Fan favourite background ponies. They aren't important enough to be tier 2 characters, they don't necessarily have any dialogue lines or canonical names, although some have both, but they're somewhat famous in the fandom. Chances are good that a brony knows them, their names and perhaps also what fanon made of them. Some of them are in only one episode, others appear in more episodes than not.
Examples: Ditzy Doo/Derpy Hooves, Doctor Whooves, Lyra, Bon Bon, Carrot Top, Colgate, Vinyl Scratch.

Tier 4: Other original background ponies. Same as tier 3, only that most bronies can not name them right away (or at all), and they don't get as much fan art, fan fiction and fan treatment in general as tier 3 characters. They might be confused with certain tier 3 characters that look not too dissimilar. However, they're clearly (or most likely) no colour swaps; for example, they've got a cutie mark of their own, or they're the one of that general model with that cutie mark who appears the most frequently. And they might still have their own little fan followings. But in general, if someone like me talks about them, most bronies don't know who is meant, although some have both names in canon and dialogue lines.
Examples: Cherries Jubilee (the earth pony with the cherries cutie mark as opposed to the Drizzle colour swap), Linky, Candy Mane, Medley, Lightning Bolt, Rainbow Day, Sparkler, Seafoam, Twinkle, Photo Finish's entourage, Hayseed.

Tier 5: Colour swaps. While certain tier 3 or tier 4 characters share the same model as others of their kind, but have both their own colours and their own cutie mark, these characters reuse not only the model, but also the cutie mark (or lack thereof) of tier 3 and tier 4 characters. In certain cases, remarkably little is changed.
Examples: "The other" Ditzy Doo (colour swap of Ditzy Doo/Derpy Hooves), Diamond Mint, Lemon Tart (both colour swaps of Sparkler), Sunny Delight (colour swap of Flora).

Tier 6: Hardly modified. In contrast to tier 5 characters, tier 6 characters are practically identical to higher-tier characters up to and including the colours and the cutie mark. Only little is changed on them. Usually, they're ported to another race. Over a Barrel shows another variant, namely citizens of Ponyville in Western garb with no changes otherwise in a situation which cannot be explained by everypony having travelled together with the Mane Six. Since they're hard to explain, they're generally ignored and usually explained as animation errors (when horns are missing on characters who are usually unicorns) or indeed having travelled (certain characters in Over a Barrel).
Examples: Accidentally hornless Colgate and Lyra, Sunset Bliss (Sparkler with no horn), Ponygirl Lyra (appropriately dressed hornless Lyra in Appleloosa), tier 4 earth ponies with added wings in Sonic Rainboom including Leeroy Wingkins (actually Bluegrass with wings).


I must admit, though, that certain cases are hard to define. For example the three Flower Ponies. Daisy in particular is a character with dialogue lines in three episodes, a name spoken in canon and yet another name given to her blind bag representation by Hasbro, and of the three Flower Ponies, she is the one with the most episode appearances by far and the only one to ever be cloned. But she seems not to be as popular as Rose whom I wouldn't put into tier 3 with certainty either. Or Cloud Kicker. She's well out of her "Is that Derpy Hooves?" phase, and Sisterhooves Social might have given her a slight popularity boost. Still, she isn't popular enough for tier 3; on the other hoof, she isn't as obscure as, say, tier 4 pony Dizzy Twister.

Lotus and Aloe are something different again. Lotus is stuck between tiers 3 and 4 again. Mind you she had a solo appearance with a dialogue line in Bridle Gossip. In Green Isn't Your Color, along came Aloe who is technically a tier 5 colour swap of hers. But since they appear together, and since the fandom keeps viewing them as a pair (twin sisters maybe), she belongs on the same level as Lotus.

The two nurses Redheart and Tenderheart are a similar case. Nurse Redheart is a speaking tier 4 character, Nurse Tenderheart is only seen in a blurry panned view. However, they both share the one single scene they're in.

The status of the Cakes isn't absolutely clear to me either. They may count as secondary characters (tier 2a meanwhile), but if they're not, they're mere speaking and named tier 4 background ponies. I myself would count them to tier 2 as they're clearly special characters as opposed to generic background ponies.

Sometimes characters move up among the tiers. Princess Luna might change from 2b to 2a in this season. Cheerilee started out as a tier 4 background pony, already correctly identified by the bronies but not remotely as hyped as a certain wall-eyed pegasus, before Call of the Cutie lifted her straight to tier 2 secondary character level which granted her her own merch with her real canon name on it (Daisy and Rose weren't that lucky). Downward movement is impossible for obvious reasons.

 

Hm, well, I guess we can welcome Sparkler to tier 3 by now, huh? She's got at least three hooves in that rank.

Sisterhooves Social gave her a little sister who happened to be Dinky, formerly believed to be Ditzy Doo's daughter. Many bronies came to the conclusion that Sparkler has to be Ditzy's daughter, too, and be it her adopted daughter. Bonus points for Doctor Whooves as her dad. There have been tons of art with these three or four by now.

The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well gave her an extra push in the picnic scene with Tootsie Flute. She spoke. Not a single line or one word, she actually had a kind of dialogue with Rainbow Dash.

I hope that more bronies will remember that she also led the animal team in Winter Wrap-up—and quit confusing her with Seafoam.