YMMV / The Simpsons S30 E17 "E My Sports"

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Was ruining the competition intentional on Lisa’s part or just the result of No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. Lisa decided to take Homer to the temple right when she saw him going a bit too far (in asking Milhouse to leave the team). At this point she knows that Homer is viewing this tournament as the be-all end-all and might even be angry with Bart if his team doesn't win, so Lisa wants Homer to realize that material success is not the most important thing. On the other hand, her breakdown in front of Marge was a bit much, as was her comment about "what this family does to her".
• Informed Wrongness: The entire weight of the episode's Aesop about the perils of living through your kids rests on Homer's dream sequences in which he's lectured by a very flawed group of successful sports dads. Homer himself doesn't do anything worse than coach Bart and his team after Bart voluntarily enters the competitive gaming area, Bart is happy with the job he's doing, and even Marge approves of the fact that he and Bart are spending so much time together.
• Misblamed: A big part of the internet, ranging from Reddit to Youtube to 4chan, act like Lisa intentionally sabotaged Bart; ironically, very few are placing any of that blame on Homer.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: While at first the episode looks like another Lisa is jealous of Bart’s success plot, it comes across more like a Homer/Marge success story given that the competition wasn’t ruined because Bart performed a Heroic Sacrifice, but because Homer decided to follow Lisa’s advice.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: While the episode tries to depict Lisa being upset at being, once more, shunted aside just because her misbehaving older sibling has found something to distract him, the attempt at invoking Middle Child Syndrome is undercut by the implication that everything would be perfect without Bart to the point where even Homer, Patty and Selma get along. The Parental Favoritism of Lisa is further address with the Heartwarming Moment of Homer telling the victorious Lisa, “With you as a daughter, I’m a winner at the game of life. Even if I lost at the game of Life.” Lisa herself was the one who pointed out that everyone was only getting along because Bart wasn’t there.
  • Her reaction to the Bart-Homer bonding is ambitious in its way; unfortunately, instead of taking the opportunity of Bart going to South Korea to do something she dreamed about for probably a while, they make Lisa a depressed girl who can't be happy until she gets whatever she wants, with the joke of her happy diary in the basement. This level of Wangst makes it look like Lisa is Playing the Victim Card instead of being happy and supportive to Bart; she throws a tantrum about him getting attention, approaching Homer while he's on the job and insists he come to a zen practice that teaches that worldly things are meaningless RIGHT before Bart's big moment, and, once again, this leads to her being the Unwitting Instigator of Doom to Bart’s misfortune.
  • Finally, as Bart is being pelted with in-flight snacks by his furious team for the 19-hour flight home instead of acknowledging her culpability or at least showing remorse, Lisa instead chastises Homer as he irritatingly tries to regain his temporary calm.
• Wangst: The scene where Lisa threw a tantrum and tried to appeal to her mother was a bit too exaggerated.
• Writer Cop Out: The biggest complaint of this story is that Lisa’s plot gets shoehorned into the episode and the role it plays in the conclusion, and how it leads to another situation where Bart is dumped on while Lisa gets what she wants.