YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S5 E8 "The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone"

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Are griffons naturally greedy as a race, like dragons, or are they just seemingly obsessed with bits in an attempt to get out of poverty, like Gilda?
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: In the scene where Rainbow Dash is pondering the tree stump that once served as a dais for the Idol of Boreas, there are some glowing mushrooms growing out of the stump. They're not plot-relevant; they're just glowing mushrooms.
• Broken Base:
  • Re-introducing Gilda and making her a more likable character is this for some fans. While a majority really does like her return and the level in kindness, there are still a small number of fans that still won't forgive her for yelling at Fluttershy and making her cry.
  • The ending seems to throw off a lot of people, due to Griffonstone ''still being in disarray'' and having no king. Nevertheless, some are okay with the ending considering how Gilda's going to help the Griffon Kingdom become friendlier and less selfish, which is implied to be a better way of restoring the place than a trophy.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Near the end of the episode, just as the central problem is declared solved, the scene cuts away to a Retraux advertisement featuring Pinkie Pie pitching the benefits of baking powder for baked goods and friendships, before cutting right back. It comes completely out of nowhere, and none of the characters — not even Pinkie — acknowledge it nor even seem aware that it happened.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • Gilda is now effectively the Hero of Another Story, left to introduce the whole griffon race to friendship on her own.
  • Arimaspi looks just similar to enough to G1 Grogar to get the thought wheels turning for writers.
  • Dragons love gold. Griffons love gold. Potential species rivalry material right there.
  • What lies at the bottom of Abysmal Abyss? Is it truly bottomless?
  • How did the griffons discover Equestria? Were they always there, or did they come from a distant land, like the ponies did?
• Fridge Brilliance
  • The griffons we've seen in the series don't act very similar to the ones in Griffonstone and Gilda was VERY eager to get enough bits to leave again. It's likely Gustave and other griffons had the same perspective.
  • If Twilight were allowed to go to Griffinstone, her teleportation and telekinesis would make retrieving the Idol significantly easier and would only serve to distract from the real reason for being there.
  • Rainbow mentions that Rarity should have come instead (though referring to the run-down nature of Griffonstone), and it seems that way since the town is so selfish—the opposite of Rarity's Element of Generosity. So it seems logical that Rarity should have been chosen, right? Nope, because the lesson that really had to be learnt was selfless loyalty coupled with a small baking tip, things that could only be provided by Rainbow and Pinkie. Even when Gilda charges for her Griffonscones (as she can't always give them away), it's implied when they're baking (by Greta's reaction) that the joy from eating something good like that, moreover a traditional food, could bridge gaps and bring back the Griffons' pride.
• Fridge Horror: It is likely to go badly for Gilda if it comes up that the idol was in the Abyss, and that she had a chance to bring it back but instead saved two visiting ponies — for free.
• Genius Bonus: The monster that stole the Idol of Boreas is called "Arimaspi." In Herodotus' histories, the Arimaspi were a race of one-eyed people who lived in the mountains of northern Scythia, near the home of Boreas the North Wind, and were said to constantly fight with the local griffins over gold.
• I Knew It!:
  • Gilda's return has been predicted probably since the moment she left. So when the episode was revealed to be about griffons, nobody was shocked to see Gilda.
  • Many people theorized before the episode aired that the true mission was for Rainbow Dash and Gilda to repair their friendship.
• Jerkass Woobie: As a result of the decline in their society, the griffons are almost universally a bunch of greedy and selfish jerks.
• Moe: Young Gilda is adorable. The big eyes also help.
• One-Scene Wonder: The Arimaspi only shows up in a flashback, and is later shown as a skeleton, yet his monstrous design and the overall coolness of the flashback won over many fans, who now wish to know more about it.
• Salvaged Story: Quite a few fans felt in hindsight, the treatment Gilda got in her debut episode was overly harsh ^note Being cut off from her only friend because she was mean to a couple of her other friends and was rightfully upset about getting pranked repeatedly compared to what the Mane Cast have done in later episodes ^note  the entirety of Lesson Zero, The Mysterious Mare Do Well, Too Many Pinkie Pies, and Tanks For The Memories being the most prominent episodes before this episode aired being much worse yet they got slaps on the wrist at most because they're the main cast. This episode acknowledges that while Gilda did badly handle the problems in “Griffon the Brush-Off”, the ponies also gave Gilda a really hard time and did nothing except laugh at Gilda’s humiliation in becoming the target of many pranks during Pinkie’s party. Rainbow Dash also reforges their friendship at the end of this episode.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Early interactions in Griffonstone imply Pinkie and Dash might get a lesson on White Man's Burden-esque "helping" not always being what a community needs, with Gilda complaining about how they think they can just come in and fix griffon issues, but it's dropped after they split up to pursue their plots.
  • Daring Do isn't mentioned at all in the episode, even though searching for a legendary artifact in a distant land fits entirely within her modus operandi.
• Tough Act to Follow: This is easily the best regarded of the season's three "regular" map episodes after the more epic one for the premiere, with the following two being largely So Okay, It's Average.
• The Woobie: Gilda as a child, clearly nervous to be attending pegasus flight camp and teased immediately. She's a Jerkass Woobie in the present.
• Woobie Species: The griffons as a whole could count. Their race used to be more glorious, but it has fallen into ruin since the loss of the idol that made their kingdom great.

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