YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S3 E10 "Spike at Your Service"

• Anticlimax Boss: Played for Laughs. The giant timberwolf is defeated with a single small rock that it chokes on.
• Ass Pull: We've never previously heard of Spike's "Noble Dragon Code", which he invented himself but Twilight knows is very important to him. As demonstrated by EQD's episode follow-up, Spike's been in mortal peril several times, but never before has this "Dragon Code" been brought up. Could be an in-universe example, depending on when the code was written up and it's possible Spike merely wrote it himself. This is justified based on What Could Have Been. With the spotlight of the episode moved from Rarity to Applejack, the writers had to hastily come up with an excuse for Spike helping her at the last minute. Numerous past episodes demonstrate that he would do anything for Rarity, due to having a huge Precocious Crush on her, but Applejack?
• Broken Base:
  • The Mane Six's fear of the Timberwolves. They've faced stronger enemies like the Changelings, Nightmare Moon and Discord without hesitation, and the Timberwolves only take one good hit to defeat, so their sudden terror is confusing to some. However, others have pointed out that the Timberwolves are pretty dang fast and vicious, on top of being nigh-on impossible to permanently kill. This isn't the first time the Mane Six have had to flee a fight, either; the dragon teenagers and the hydra in Froggy Bottom Bog come to mind.
  • Many of the episode's problems could be chalked up to its sudden, drastic change from its original concept. On the other hand, if the What Could Have Been is to be believed, the original version could have been even worse, so it's probably for the best.
  • While pretty much everyone agrees this isn't a great episode, a portion of the fans still find many moments genuinely funny, while others can't stand even remembering this episode exists.
• Cliché Storm: This episode throws together pretty much every I Owe You My Life episode cliché out there, hits frappé, and does nothing new with the formula.
• Fanfic Fuel
  • Shortly after the episode's synopsis came out, there was already a fic involving Spike's code.
  • Rainbow Dash confirming that she's working on what's essentially a Self-Insert Fic ended up spawning numerous fanfics about her writing the fanfic and/or what it consists of.
  • Some fans have also taken Rainbow Dash's line to mean that Applejack is also working on a novel. There have indeed been fanfics about that, too.
• Fanon Discontinuity: This episode gets this quite a bit, primarily because of Spike suddenly holding the Idiot Ball.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: A couple of fans have said that they wish the writers would've left the original idea of Rarity being the one who saved Spike's life in; because it would've made Spike's inept actions more justified due to his Precocious Crush on her, on the basis of Love Makes You Dumb.
• Memetic Molester: Spike gained this status due to the scene where he scratches Applejack's back, thanks to it looking more like he's massaging her hindquarters. The pleasured look on Applejack's face certainly doesn't help, and that's not even getting to how her vocal tone comes off as flat-out aroused.
  Applejack: (clearly enjoying herself as Spike scratches her) Ah, that does... feel good...!

---