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YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S4 E19 "Trade Ya!"

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  • Accidental Aesop: The entire episode is a good demonstration of why money is valuable as a medium of exchange, as it illustrates all the difficulty of determining value in a barter system.
  • Aluminum Christmas Trees: Many Real Life vegans enjoy oat burgers, which are often greasier than other "veggie burger" recipes, and easily as greasy as typical hamburgers; hence the grease stains on the bags from the oatburger stand.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • That filly with the battered quill bears a resemblance to Derpy, and so some fans work her into the family tree as Chirpy Hooves.
    • The Orthros, of all things.
  • Fanfic Fuel:
    • The pegasus filly who wanted to trade her broken quill for Twilight's old books seems to think the quill has value. That quill has to have an interesting history.
    • There's also that that flaming pony cut out from the comic tent. Just who is she?
  • Genius Bonus:
    • One of the items that was offered for Twilight's books is a Daruma doll, a traditional Japanese luck charm.
    • Orthros is another monster from Greek Mythology, but a rather obscure one compared to three-headed Cerberus.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Twilight ultimately decides against selling her books, as they're such an important part of who she is. Four episodes later, they'll all be destroyed.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Who would've thought that Discord-shaped lamps would prove to be popular?
  • Never Live It Down: Rainbow Dash gets harped on again for doing a questionable action, this time being trading Fluttershy along with the Orthros for the Daring Do book. However, Rainbow Dash only agreed because she wasn't paying attention, and she realizes her mistake the second the trade is completed.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • Some viewers felt the plot lines of AJ & Rarity and of Pinkie & Twilight had some more potential to them, but were too hastily concluded to be satisfying.
    • Spike fans were especially unhappy that he gets ignored once again, considering the mystery around the comic book from Power Ponies.
    • Rarity and Applejack's subplot in particular is dismissed to a Running Gag / Funny Background Event after getting as much buildup as the others, and serves no purpose other than to establish they're good friends. You could remove it entirely and not change the plot or moral of the episode at all.
    • The moral of the story could've worked the other way around: On one hand, it could've shown that there's a thin line between keeping something for sentimental value and hoarding every single thing for the sake of hoarding. And on the other hand, even though there's nothing wrong with giving away stuff for money, you should be careful not to (figuratively) sell your soul, or the things that matter most.

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