YMMV / My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic S8 E15 "The Hearth's Warming Club"

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Do dragons like stories about "weak, kind creatures getting defeated" because of their Might Makes Right mentality, or do they just like stories with depressing endings? Smolder did seem excited when she asked if Sandbars story about almost spilling grapejuice on the white couch has a depressing ending.
  • Was Twilight really going to keep the Young Six over winter break if none of them confessed to the prank, or was she bluffing in an attempt to get Gallus to confess? The fact that she and Rainbow admitted in the end that they knew it was him all along strongly implies the latter.
• Broken Base: There's some debate on whether or not Twilight's actions in the episode were reasonable. One side feels she was simply doing her job as headmare and exercising her authority in a firm but fair manner^note  damaging or destroying school property is considered a serious offense, with it being strongly implied that she was simply bluffing, while others feel she was too harsh in deciding to punish the innocent Young Six for something that only Gallus did with circumstantial evidence and refusing to let them go home to their families if no one fesses up, and that she acted no better than she did in "Marks for Effort".
• Fanon: Despite not having any indication in the materials pertaining to this episode, a lot of viewers gave the Dragon Lord Scales dethroned the name Gaius.
• Fanfic Fuel: Gallus not having a family leaves much to be decided as to what happened. Was he orphaned? Was he abandoned? Did he run away?
• Harsher in Hindsight: Gallus' desire to stay at the Friendship School at the end of "School Daze" takes on a very different meaning after this episode.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Many fans who didn't like or were neutral towards Gallus changed this opinions after this episode.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • We don't get to see Smolder's family when she talks about the Feast of Fire.
  • We also don't see the exact circumstances as to what led to Gallus not having a family in the first place.
• Unexpected Character: The Storm King makes an onscreen appearance!
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: While Gallus' reason for pulling his prank was understandable, it still doesn't justify him being willing to get his friends in trouble if it meant keeping them from going home to their own families.
• The Woobie: Poor Gallus. We find out he doesn't have a family.

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