YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S6 E8 "A Hearth's Warming Tail"

• Genius Bonus:
  • Snowfall's spellbook contains some alchemical symbols. Assuming the spell requires a crucible as indicated, she is doing it wrong.
  • One of the background ponies is dressed like Sherlock Holmes and has a bee cutie mark; in the original stories, Sherlock took up beekeeping after his retirement.
• Glurge: Twilight's message of "Hearth's Warming Eve is about friendship and joy and togetherness and you have to like it or else the world will end!!!" might be felt to be a little heavyhanded, especially since (unlike her fictional counterpart) Starlight wasn't trying to ruin it for anyone else but just planned to avoid it and go to bed early. Possibly justified in that a) Twilight is trying to socialise Starlight and so has good reasons to try to push her out of her comfort zone ^note seeing as the last time Starlight was allowed to give in to her shyness and avoid normal connections she ended up feeling lonely and resorted to becoming a deranged cult leader as a substitute, and b) Twilight has never been portrayed as being particularly subtle when she's trying to impart a moral on someone. Still, it's not entirely clear if we're supposed to see it that way or if we're meant to think that the story is genuinely charming.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: It took waiting until the penultimate episode of the series, but ponies eventually realized the real meaning behind Hearth's Warming Eve, putting Starlight and Snowfall's criticisms in this episode to rest.
• I Knew It!: As if the episode's title wasn't enough, all it took was a few short preview clips revealing the setting and costumes for fans to piece together that this would be Yet Another Christmas Carol.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: A few fans have criticized the episode for the basic plot being Yet Another Christmas Carol, especially since "For Whom the Sweetie Belle Toils" already used the basic formula and put a new spin on it. Though Luna's appearance as the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Yet to Come is generally considered worth it.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • The Spirit of Hearth's Warming Yet to Come is way too tall for Princess Luna, despite her being a full-grown alicorn. This has lead to fan art showing her on various objects such as stilts or riding on Celestia.
  • Calling Professor Flintheart "Pony-Snape".
• Strawman Has a Point: A number of both Starlight and Snowfall's criticisms toward the way Hearth's Warming Eve is celebrated (encouraging ponies to think being nice will solve all problems, repeating greetings to the point that they lose their sincerity, and so on) have some degree of applicability towards Christmas in real life, but the consequences of not celebrating (the Windigos returning) are completely fictitious.
• Tainted by the Preview:
  • This is the third Twilight/Starlight-centric episode of Season Six, the third in less than a few episodes, and also counting the Season Five finale, the fifth one overall. While some fans consider it more cute Character Development between student and teacher, others have grown rather weary of the pairing (especially after the last episode featuring them divided the fanbase rather dramatically) and want Starlight to start connecting with the other members of the Mane Six instead. However, after the episode actually came out, most fans seemed to be quite impressed.
  • There's also the fact that the story that Twilight is telling is Yet Another Christmas Carol, which may turn off some viewers, as not only did Friendship is Magic already have an episode with elements inspired by "A Christmas Carol", but also said version had its own unique twist to it (outside of being not set during Hearth's Warming Eve), whereas this episode, outside of the Scrooge Expy wanting to destroy Hearth's Warming, is a straightforward take of the story.
• Unexpected Character: Because each of the members of the Mane Six are playing major roles and Twilight is acting as narrator, many viewers were pleasantly surprised that Princess Luna is playing the part of the Spirit of Hearth's Warming Yet to Come.
• Values Dissonance: The major reason the episode can be so off putting to some is how the message can be boiled down to "LIKE AND CELEBRATE THIS HOLIDAY OR ELSE". Considering how Hearth's Warming Eve is an equivalent of Christmas a holiday that is not universally celebrated it can almost come across as mean spirited towards those of different beliefs. Not to mention how an earlier episode taught that it was okay not to take part in Holiday you didn't enjoy.
• Win Back the Crowd: The first two episodes after the very well-received "Gauntlet of Fire" were considered to be a step down from it, but some fans consider this episode to be as good as, if not even better than "Gauntlet of Fire".

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