YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S6 E23 "Where the Apple Lies"

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • This episode makes it unclear if Filthy Rich is genuinely an Honest Corporate Executive or if he acts that way because he's terrified of Granny Smith. His threats to cut ties with the Apples dry up when Granny calls him out and he seems scared that the cider mix-up at the beginning will cross her even though he had no role in it.
  • Big Mac was bossy and overbearing as a colt, but he was also chattier, charismatic, and seemingly more confident. Moreover, as far as this episode is concerned, it's Applejack who absolutely refuses to listen to anyone else. Did Big Mac take his decision to "listen more" to an extreme by shutting up entirely, and was it a good thing for him in the long run? Alternatively, considering that the Apple parents had not yet passed away during the flashbacks, based on Word of God, was part of the reason for Big Mac's extreme silence due to grief rather than just the episode aesop?
• Character Rerailment: Some fans had become worried that the show was retconning Filthy Rich's Nice Guy personality between the reveal of Spoiled Rich as an Alpha Bitch who directly influenced their daughter, his human counterpart being a villain in Legend of Everfree, and seemingly becoming a Corrupt Corporate Executive or a Sleazy Politician in the comics. This episode shows his original characterization is still there.
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • One shot in the hospital shows Derpy with medical dressing wrapped around her head, covering her eyes. Perhaps her visual impairment was the result of an accident? Others have pointed out that she's been shown with her crossed eyes while looking younger than shown here which has led to some theorizing that she had the bandages from a failed operation to fix her eyes. The episode Parental Glidance seems to confirm the latter.
  • The continued absence of Applejack's parents is made all the more noticeable when Filthy Rich introduces Spoiled Milk as his (apparently new) fiancee rather than his wife. Considering that Apple Bloom and Diamond Tiara are classmates and appear to be the same age, this is likely before either of them existed. If AJ and Big Mac's parents perished before the events of this episode, where did Apple Bloom come from?
    • Word of God revealed that Applejack's parents were away on a couple's vacation during that episode, so it could be that she wasn't born yet (though this was disproven in Going to Seed which showed Apple Bloom was already born before Applejack got her cutie mark and when their parents were still alive).
  • How Big Mac got his name and cutie mark, which were Orphaned Punchlines in the episode.
• Fridge Horror: Applejack and and Big Mac were arguing about who will take charge of Sweet Apple Acres after Granny Smith is gone, with no mention of their (alive at the time) parents.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Among the hospital scenes, there is a brief shot of a unicorn with half of his horn missing. The 2017 movie would have Tempest Shadow establish that such an injury renders a unicorn unable to cast spells normally. And given that Tempest had turned to villainy on the promise of getting her horn restored, it's reasonable to assume that Equestria's medical community has no meaningful solution for that.
• Moe: People have adored teenage Applejack's designs, especially with her pigtails.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Netflix censored all mention of cider and replaced it with "juice". To say the fans weren't happy would be an understatement.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Given how most of the episode is told in flashback, some viewers are disappointed that an infant Apple Bloom was nowhere to be found in the episode. Then again, considering Diamond Tiara's parents weren't even married yet, she may not have even been in the picture yet (though this was disproven in Going to Seed which showed Apple Bloom was already born before Applejack got her cutie mark, so she would have been around at the time).

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