YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S1 E11 "Winter Wrap Up"

• Accidental Aesop:
  • The main focus seems to be on Twilight realizing everyone has a talent and unique place. However, we also learn that within all of Twilight's angst of her screwing up the ceremony, every single other pony has been doing just as badly as her, and the supposedly blissful Winter Wrap Up has been a disorganized mess before she even came. As such a second Aesop could be "Everyone makes mistakes, so don't feel singled out because you made one".
  • "Even good workers can use a good manager to coordinate their efforts." The other citizens of Ponyville already have their teams and know their tasks, but the titular "wrap up" doesn't wrap up until Twilight applies her executive skills to 1. find the most efficient way to do each task and 2. determine which ones need to be done first.
• Awesome Music: "Winter Wrap-Up." The beautiful music (especially that acoustic guitar and mandolin) and bittersweet "out with the old, in with the new" lyrics make it one of the most emotional songs in the whole show.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • This was the episode that led the fandom to call a bay earth pony with an hourglass cutie mark "Doctor Whoov"^note Or Doctor Whooves, Doctor Whoof, Doctor Hooves..
  • A unicorn filly with a resemblance to Derpy was dubbed "Dinky"^note Last name is Doo or Hooves and envisioned as a daughter, sister, or niece of Derpy (usually daughter).
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Possibly, AJ was so furious with Twilight not so much because Twilight made a huge mess, nor exactly because Twilight used magic, but because Twilight didn't see how culturally disrespectful that was. The Earth ponies who founded Ponyville were Applejack's ancestors, including Granny Smith who AJ clearly adores. Earth ponies don't get nearly as much love from fans as pegasi and unicorns do, due to their natural powers being more Mundane Made Awesome Super-Strength Green Thumb abilities than Inexplicably Awesome Color Coded Magic or Flight). Twilight's use of magic unintentionally disrespected the Apple family, particularly Granny Smith, and by extension, AJ herself (there's no telling just how long AJ and everyone in the family has had to defend the tradition from all types of ponies). Twilight must have realized it, too - that's why she got so upset.
  • Mayor Mare chastises the citizens of Ponyville for delaying spring for use to their disorganization, passively mentioning that this is something that happens on a regular, yearly basis. While it had already started taking effect by the time the episode aired, one of the more prominent long-term effects of climate change that's become more apparent in the years since had been seasonal changes being out of whack, meaning that winter typically does last longer than it supposed to (sometimes well into May) in many parts of the world.
  • Spike's "You're not mommy."
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Twilight can't join the pegasi weather team because she doesn't have wings. After "Magical Mystery Cure", she'll spend the majority of the show with precisely that.
• Jerkass Woobie: While Spike was a huge asshole throughout the entire episode, it's not hard to sympathize with him at the end of the episode when he catches a cold due to falling in the water. To make it even worse, Applejack and Twilight show absolutely No Sympathy toward him and even laugh about it like it's nothing.
• Memetic Mutation: Rainbow Dash's mention of a pegasus named Ditzy Doo who screwed up the bird migration last year got many fans suspecting this was actually Derpy Hooves' real name, and it remains a popular choice for people who find her fan name offensive.^note According to Lauren Faust, who at the time represented Word of God for the series, the gray pegasus was intended to be Ditzy Doo, but "she can be Derpy if everyone likes".
• Moe: Twilight actually displays more of it in this episode than any other... even more than Fluttershy. Especially her tearful look after Applejack scolds her...
• Tear Jerker: The title song, not only Twilight's melancholy verses about feeling left out but also happy tears at the almost spiritual concept of re-welcoming Spring, doing away with the old and welcoming the new.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Spike at the end of the episode. While you could argue that him catching a cold is just Laser-Guided Karma for his Jerkass behavior throughout the episode, you could also argue that it was a little disproportionate and that the other characters essentially laughing at him about it was rather.. cruel.
• The Woobie: Twilight Sparkle, as funny as her Trauma Conga Line may be throughout the episode, all she wants to do was help.

---