YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S7 E21 "Once Upon a Zeppelin"

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation:
  • Doesn't matter what you're being offered, Read the Fine Print before signing anything.
  • There's no such thing as a free lunch; if something seems too good to be true, it's either fake or there's some kind of catch. If you're getting a free product, chances are you're the product.
  • Your favorite celebrity is a person too, and they need time to spend with their family before their fans.
• Broken Base: Iron Will's portrayal in this episode. Fans either loved him for his funny moments... or didn't take too kindly to his Took a Level in Jerkass portrayal (when he was originally a sympathetic Designated Villain).
• Designated Villain: While Iron Will is more overtly sleazy this time around with his Princess-Themed Cruise, he still clearly outlined the terms of the cruise in a contract that Twilight Velvet signed without reading and kept up his end of the bargain. It wasn't right to try and force Twilight Sparkle into it as she wasn't aware of the terms, but Iron Will was well within his reasonable boundaries to expect their family to uphold their end of the bargain and it's honestly very easy to blame Twilight Velvet instead for signing a contract that obligated her daughter to work for a cruise without bothering to read it. It doesn't help that he was completely willing to tear up the contract and call off the cruise without a fight when Twilight protested (though he pressured her by saying all the other guests would have been disappointed, he was also completely correct and justified in doing so) or that Twilight only had such a horrid time because she offered to do the work of multiple people so her family could relax.
• Fan Nickname: The chubby grey unicorn in the polo shirt bears a striking resemblance to Chris-Chan. Sonichu fans have lovingly dubbed him Stress Sigh.
• Genius Bonus: Iron Will's parachute design◊ which shows him up to his waist in a pile of money. This might be a reference to the phrase "Golden Parachute"; especially since Iron Will is using a literal parachute to escape without issuing refunds to the cruise passengers.
• Nausea Fuel: Andrew Francis does some quite disturbingly realistic nauseous acting.
• Unexpected Character: With all the teaser blurbs focusing on the family angle, the return of Iron Will was a surprise.
• Win Back the Crowd: A lot of fans were worried that this episode was going to turn out like "Fame and Misfortune" due to both episodes focusing on having to deal with Loony Fans. Fortunately, the cruise attendees end up far more reasonable than those who bought the Friendship Journal. After finding out that Twilight was blackmailed into spending time with them, all of the cruisers immediately back off and rally against Iron Will, and they respect the privacy of Twilight and her family during the end of the episode.
• The Woobie:
  • Poor Twilight just wanted a chance to have a family vacation without dealing with any princess responsibilities. She instead has to spend most of the episode overseeing various activities for the rest of the cruise attendees, while the rest of her family get to enjoy themselves.
  • Star Tracker is just a nervous fan that doesn't know the best way to behave around royalty, but when Twilight breaks down and yells at him, you can see he was just more interested in trying to be helpful rather than obsessive.

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