History YMMV / MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E8TheMysteriousMareDoWell

* DontShootTheMessage: Due to how poorly-executed the humility moral was in the episode, it leaves the audience feeling apathetic to said moral.

** Dash's friends were either having some good-natured fun among themselves and dropping hints to Dash that she would be happier and more successful if she just improved her attitude and acted more like Mare-Do-Well (i.e. humbly and without showboating), '''or''' were cruelly mocking Dash and her misfortunes while hypocritically praising Mare-Do-Well (i.e. themselves), fully aware that attacking Dash's competitive personality this way would only cause her grief. Still a third group takes it as them dropping hints and wanting her to put two and two together.

** Rainbow Dash's bragging has been made this episode's conflict, as it tries to deliver an aesop about humility. However, Rainbow Dash's bragging, especially in this episode is pretty harmless, especially since she can back up what she claims and it never really goes too far outside of being annoying. In terms of Rainbow Dash's bragging, giving her a heavy-handed aesop about humility even though she doesn't really take it that far is pretty petty, especially since in later episodes like "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E16ATrivialPursuit Trivial Pursuit]]" shows characters like Applejack and Sunburst doing harmless bragging with nopony having a problem with that.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Dash's friends are supposed to be viewed sympathetically for saving lives and making Dash get over her ego, however, aside from the InformedWrongness of her ego, Dash's friends don't really bother with simply telling her about it, and instead use a needlessly complex scheme to upstage her as the greatest hero in Ponyville. Furthermore, they outright tease Dash about her being jealous of Mare do Well, and bring up how unlike Dash, Mare do Well is humble (a hypocritical statement given they ''are'' Mare do Well and they repeatedly talk about how great she is) while Dash is [[ImStandingRightHere standing right next to them]].

** When Dash confronted Mare Do Well, she ran off into a series of back alleys. Either Mare Do Well was luring Dash away from the crowd so that the Mane Six could talk to Dash in private and spare her any further humilation, '''or''' Mare Do Well was genuinely trying to get away from any confrontation so that she would not be humiliated herself.

** While it's mostly because of jealously, Rainbow’s comment about Mare Do Well somehow being able to know things before they happen and implying that the latter is intentionally setting up these accidents to pretend to save others, isn’t completely unreasonable. Mare Do Well is an unknown masked vigilante who only recently showed up in Ponyville. She always has the skills or knows exactly what to do to fix the problem at hand, never says a word to anyone and is always quick to leave the scene.

* IdiotPlot:
** The episode's entire plot hinges around the Mane Six never directly confronting Rainbow about her boasting until the very end and Dash herself being incapable of figuring out what it means to be a real hero until it has to be spelled out for her.
** The second half of the episode seems to hinge on the fact that Rainbow cannot distinguish the fact that a pony who could both cast magic ''and'' could fly - powers belonging to two distinct pony races - was at the dam, but Rainbow is still looking for one pony.
* InformedWrongness: Rainbow Dash's bragging has been made this episode's conflict, as it tries to deliver an aesop about humility. However, Rainbow Dash's bragging, especially in this episode is pretty harmless, especially since she can back up what she claims and it never really goes too far outside of being annoying. In terms of Rainbow Dash's bragging, giving her a heavy-handed aesop about humility even though she doesn't really take it that far is pretty petty, especially since in later episodes like “[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E16ATrivialPursuit Trivial Pursuit]]“ shows characters like Applejack and Sunburst doing harmless bragging with nopony having a problem with that.
* JerkassWoobie: Rainbow Dash upon savoring her popularity becomes an egotistical ass and vents a lot of spite towards Mare Do-Well for taking it away. As her attempts to gain credibility get more and more pathetic however, you can't help but feel even a little bit sorry for her. After all, [[ChronicHeroSyndrome she's just]] [[IJustWantToBeSpecial trying to be a hero]].

* StrawmanHasAPoint: While it's mostly because of jealously, Rainbow’s comment about Mare Do Well somehow being able to know things before they happen and implying that the latter is intentionally setting up these accidents to pretend to save others, isn’t completely unreasonable. Mare Do Well is an unknown masked vigilante who only recently showed up in Ponyville. She always has the skills or knows exactly what to do to fix the problem at hand, never says a word to anyone and is always quick to leave the scene.

* FanonDiscontinuity: Due to this episode rubbing off fans the wrong way with Dash's friends being unsympathetic, many fans pretend that this episode never happened.

* AccidentalAesop: A braggart has feelings too.

** The episodes entire plot hinges around the Mane Six never directly confronting Rainbow about her boasting until the very end and Dash herself being incapable of figuring out what it means to be a real hero until it has to be spelled out for her.

%% * DontShootTheMessage: The source of the episode’s controversy is how it does a very poor job delivering its intended Aesop about humility.

* ScapegoatCreator: This was Merriwether Williams' first episode, and after it premiered, she was singled out for online hatred because of this episode, never mind the fact that there’s a whole bunch of writers, editors, and producers (including then executive producer Lauren Faust) that worked on the episode too. This hate would also get carried on to every episode she wrote, at least until “Wonderbolts Academy” toned it down somewhat.

** And now [[http://yuki-orin.deviantart.com/art/Alone-page-1-277324461 this fanart]] and an attempt at a {{Reconstruction}} [[http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/TRUE-Harmony-of-Rainbow-Dash-262756035 here]].

* ScapegoatCreator: This was Merriwether Williams’ first episode, and after it premiered, she was singled out for online hatred because of this episode, never mind the fact that there’s a whole bunch of writers, editors, and producers (including then executive producer Lauren Faust) that worked on the episode too. This hate would also get carried on to every episode she wrote, at least until “Wonderbolts Academy” toned it down somewhat.

%% * FanonDiscontinuity: Due to this episode rubbing off fans the wrong way, many fans pretend that this episode never happened.

* DontShootTheMessage: The source of the episodes controversy is how it does a very poor job delivering its intended Aesop about humility.

* FanonDiscontinuity: Due to this episode rubbing off fans the wrong way, many fans pretend that this episode never happened.

* ScapegoatCreator: This was Merriwether Williams’ first episode, and after it premiered, she was singled out for internet hate because of this episode, never mind the fact that there’s a whole bunch of writers, editors, and producers (including then executive producer Lauren Faust) that worked on the episode too. This hate would also get carried on to every episode she wrote, at least until “Wonderbolts Academy” toned it down somewhat.

* TastesLikeDiabetes: In this episode, we finally get to see a pony baby... and it is ADORABLE!
* UncannyValley: The aforementioned pony baby could also invoke this trope.

** And now [[http://yuki-orin.deviantart.com/art/Alone-page-1-277324461 this fanart]] and an attempt at a {{Reconstruction}} [[http://alexwarlorn.deviantart.com/art/TRUE-Harmony-of-Rainbow-Dash-262756035 here]] (a later chapter has [[spoiler:Rainbow Dash as Mare-Do-Well fighting [[Fanfic/RainbowFactory Rainbow Factory Rainbow Dash]] [[http://fav.me/daiajzk to protect Scootaloo]]]], ItMakesSenseInContext).

**

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Rainbow Dash tends to be favorably viewed in this episode by a lot of the audience. She saved several ponies' lives at the beginning of the episode without any expectation of reward, and only let her pride go to her head as a result of the townsponies heaping overwhelming praise on her. Later, as her arrogance began to hamper her attempts at heroism, Rainbow still tried to save people and failed more because she lacked the skills to handle every emergency on her own rather than because she was too boastful. When she tried to regain her reputation through ill-planned but still genuine efforts at being helpful, she got beat up by Granny Smith, then mocked and insulted by the entire town, all for trivial reasons. She then went into a depression, which none of her friends (except possibly Scootaloo) bothered to notice and help her with. Instead the whole town focused on praising Mare-Do-Well, who by this point was the prime source of Rainbow's confidence issues. For many people, this gives the impression the episode is fine with pinning everything bad that happened on Rainbow Dash, even when it appears the townspeople and her friends at least share part of the blame for either ignoring or exacerbating Rainbow's attention-seeking problems.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy tend to be unfavorably viewed in this episode by a lot of the audience. While they at least saved several ponies' lives as Mare-Do-Well, they were never shown just talking to Rainbow Dash and explaining their concerns about her boasting being a problem, and instead jumped straight into a plan to deflate Rainbow's ego by mercilessly beating her at something she took great personal pride in. Their actions were very thoughtless and hurtful, actually making Rainbow's behavior much worse, and they didn't let up even when it was clear that their friend wasn't reacting well, even deliberately mocking her as being jealous, all of which made them seem like jerks. In the Sugarcube Corner scene, Applejack talked about how modest and humble Mare-Do-Well is, while she and the others bragged about their own accomplishments as the masked heroine, making them all look like massive {{Hypocrite}}s. They directly confronted Rainbow about her bragging problems only ''after'' she discovered Mare-Do-Well's identity, leaving them with no option but to come clean. For many people, this gives the impression that the other Mane Six just wanted to bring down Dash because of envy at the attention she was getting, and that they failed to think through the effects their plan would have on Rainbow's attitude and only succeeded in making things worse.