Up in their cloud condo complex, the Birdtaurs have been obsessively watching the herd: Horse and friends are their favorite reality stars!
This episode contains examples of:
- Bait-and-Switch: The intro shows the herd in a frozen wasteland about to ask an imposing quintet of giant "cold-taurs" (a narwhaltaur, walrustaur, musk-oxtaur, orcataur, and moosetaur) for help in the war. Then the herd is abducted by birdtaurs and the rest of the episode is meta commentary about the fandoms, with the "coldtaur" plot being pushed to the following episode.
- Shout-Out:
- While the herd is signing autographs, the tarp behind them is covered in “Herd-Con” logos that bear a resemblance to the Comic-Con logo.
- One fan, unsatisfied by the herd’s re-enactment of events within the rift, announces she’s started a petition to change the ending. This echoes negative fan reactions to the final season of Game of Thrones, which also launched petitions to have the season be redone.
- Take That, Audience! / Oh, Crap, There Are Fanfics of Us!:
- The Birdtaur flock is a jab at fandoms, having apparently “binge-watched” the herd’s adventures from the sky, shipping the members of the herd, forming sub-fandoms around certain characters such as Comfortable Doug, and all generally viewing Wammawink as The Scrappy in-universe, much to her chagrin.
- They also poke fun at a common fandom response to a bad ending by trying to petition for a new ending (such was the response to Game of Thrones, Sherlock, Supernatural, and How I Met Your Mother) and not understanding how unrealistic this actually is. In-universe because the "ending" actually happened, in reality, because that means throwing more money at the cast and crew, having the writers whip up a new script, possibly reconstructing sets, possibly creating new costumes, etc.
- Visual Pun: A keytaur. As in "a keytar centaur".
