Line #11 YMMV/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E14FameAndMisfortune


1	* AlternateAesopInterpretation:
2	** While the intent of the episode is "You can't please everyone, but you can control how it affects you", the overall lesson could also be interpreted as "If you're going to put yourself in the limelight, then beware of haters and {{Loony Fan}}s."
3	** Fans aren't the same thing as friends or family.
4	** Acknowledge your favorite characters' [[WartsAndAll flaws]] as well as their strengths. Otherwise, you may as well be [[LovingAShadow chasing a Mary Sue]].
5	** One comment on [=YouTube=] points out that sometimes, what you want to share isn't meant for everyone. Twilight meant to share the Friendship Journals with every pony who needed friendship lessons, and she thought she could accomplish that by [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor sharing the journals with every pony in Equestria]]. But she learned the hard way that every pony who didn't need a friendship lesson read it and [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint overlooked]] the whole point of the journals. Toola Roola and Coconut Cream were the only ones who needed it and made a point they personally appreciated it.
6	* AngstAversion: The fans who did not like the episode point out how utterly mean-spirited the ponies are and that outside of the B plot with Toola Roola and Coconut Cream, none of the fan ponies really seem to learn their lesson and get away with their nasty behavior. It also didn't help that the townsponies all consisted of background characters that bronies over the years had gotten attached to, who wound up grabbing the JerkassBall, with the worst of it coming from fan favorites like Lemon Hearts. [[WordOfGod M.A. Larson]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qKgav9k_u0 at a panel]] [[CreatorBacklash said that he didn't like the concept either for this reason]] and actually tried to make the episode less mean-spirited, but [[ExecutiveMeddling the executives got in the way of that.]]
7	* BrokenAesop: The intended Aesop about not letting entitled fans, critics, or debate over your work affect you is broken afterward when the Mane Six realize they are still causing the same problems, and thus affecting them, such they decided they had to do something about them, and probably did given they're back to normal next episode.
8	* BrokenBase: Pretty much inevitable, considering it's a giant TakeThatAudience. Some find the episode to be a fun yet necessary jab at obsessive fans, others see it as being petulant over legitimate criticism the show has received -- especially where the Mane 6's characterization is concerned. [[TakeAThirdOption A third group]] doesn't mind the episode's subject matter, but rather judges the episode as an actual episode, and found the Mane Six's treatment to be a bit too mean-spirited and the entirety of Ponyville to be more than a little unsympathetic. Yet ''another'' group argues that the background ponies are at the mercy of the writers and animators, and that the whole experience will blow right over by the next episode.
9	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
10	** Toola Roola and Coconut Cream, the two fillies of the B storyline. Them getting over their fights with each other through reading friendship lessons endeared them to the mane cast and the audience, becoming the only truly nice characters introduced in the episode. It helps that the two are references to the G3 franchise.
11	** Watch any blind commentary reaction to this episode and the absolute ''highlight'' of the episode (besides the song and stressed Rarity) will invariably be either the guy demanding to know if Pinkie and Applejack are related or the elderly mare who claims that Twilight was better before she got wings.
12	* FanonDiscontinuity: For the [[BrokenBase sake of sanity]] for ''everyone'', fans and [[CreatorBacklash creators alike]], people generally prefer to just ignore [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain discussing]] this episode and pretend it never happened and move on.
13	* HilariousInHindsight: [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/630/the-book-of-friendship The Book of Friendship]] is an ongoing fanfiction started ''five years prior'' which is about two ponies who are dedicated to teaching the magic of friendship to others through the Book of Friendship which contains all of the Friendship Lessons that Twilight Sparkle learned throughout her lifetime.
14	* MemeticMutation: Rarity's insane smile from when Twilight and Starlight walk in on her SanitySlippage spread fairly quickly, becoming the go-to thumbnail for most reaction videos.
15	* {{Misblamed}}: In 2014, Larson branched into novel writing with the ''Pennyroyal Academy'' series, so some viewers took the episode as being based on his experiences dealing with their reception and his interactions with readers. Actually, Larson was handed the episode's premise by the [[ExecutiveMeddling executives at Hasbro,]] and [[CreatorBacklash even he didn't like how it turned out.]] This sprang from the misconception that Larson returned to the show for this episode, when in reality it was an old script he wrote before he left the show during Season 5.
16	* OlderThanTheyThink: Although some bronies took offense at an episode they thought was mocking their subculture, the obnoxious LoonyFan behavior on display is so broad and generalized it [[{{Applicability}} can be applied to]] pretty much any Fandom. Creator/WilliamShatner was already mocking this very same behavior thirty years prior, in his infamous "Get a life!" ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' sketch. ''{{WesternAnimation/Animaniacs}}'' did a skit on it as well, as a mock PSA.
17	* RealismInducedHorror: As controversial as it was, a lot of the fans' behavior in the episode is uncomfortably reminiscent of real-life toxic fans from any fandom -- stalking the creators of the work, [[IAmNotSpock refusing to realize that the creators aren't "in-character" all the time]], and ruining their reputations just because they didn't like something they did, just to name a few.
18	* StrawmanHasAPoint: The {{Loony Fan}}s are supposed to be disliked for [[KarmaHoudini getting away]] with harassing and criticizing the Mane Six over their characters and stories despite them being real ponies and events they had no control over. But it's intended as an allegory for fan complaints against the show, which would be valid as the characters and stories are in the creators' control and their job ''is'' to make them satisfying. From that perspective many of the criticisms and thoughts ([[AesopAmnesia such as characters learning the same lesson over and over]]) are generally valid.
19	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
20	** None of the journal readers have anything to say about Starlight Glimmer, even though she's the most infamous BaseBreakingCharacter in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' (to the point where she has her own section in [[BaseBreakingCharacter/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic the show's Base-Breaking Character page]]) and has generated a lot of arguments in the fanbase over various elements of her character. On the other hand, considering that those arguments are ''a lot'' more heated than any argument presented in this episode, it was probably for the best that this episode didn't bring any attention to them. But then again, the episode could have squeezed some critique regarding her character without going too far into it such as her FatalFlaw of using magic to solve every problem or her status as the show's SixthRanger.
21	** Spike doesn't even get mentioned, let alone appear, which is very suspicious and sad as he contributed 10 friendship lessons throughout the series prior to this episode and he has '''[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E23InspirationManifestation 1 visible entry in the diary]]'''. Oh, the possibilities of some {{Loony Fan}}s' reactions toward him and his sudden realization at the fact that he even had a fanbase in Equestria, as well as the possible reactions he might have had to seeing his friends (especially Rarity) harassed by them. Some fans have also pointed out that a lot of Starlight's dialogue, as well as her general role in this episode, seems to fit Spike better, and argue that he should have been there instead of her. This argument is only helped up by one of the writers saying that his original draft of the episode actually had Spike instead of Starlight, as the script was written before Starlight had her HeelFaceTurn.
22	** Considering how the fandom has believed that Pinkie's "Pinkamena" side from "Party of One" is a big part of her character despite only appearing in that episode, it would have been an interesting topic for the townponies to bring up. Or at least mentioned.
23	** Anyone think the Hooffields and [=McColts=] should have been the "Sweet Apple Admirers" alongside the cajun ponies?
24	* UnexpectedCharacter: Who was expecting one of the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyG3 Generation 3 "Core 7" ponies,]] much less Toola Roola, out of all of them, to make an appearance?
25	* TheWoobie: While all of the Mane Six suffer from the harassment of the Journal's fans, Rarity got it the worst. Not only does Rarity get chewed out by the snobbish ponies, but her business suffers because of her haters' success in getting her boycotted. She spends nearly the entire episode in a crying mess.

Context YMMV / MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E14FameAndMisfortune